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The Centre for Business Research at Manchester Business School recently carried out a survey on the opinions and predictions of experts in grocery retailing. Part 1 of the results of this survey was published in the July/August issue; there, we outlined the responses to the questions associated with the changes in the structure of the retail grocery market. Part 2 deals with the extent and impact of the major operational issues facing retailers, against a background of continuing structural change.

Over the last ten years the structure of the UK retail grocery sector has changed substantially, with concentration and centralisation being the key features. Store size has increased; own label merchandising and in‐store technology have both developed; and there has been increasing centralisation at head office level. In order to assess these major changes, the Centre for Business Research at Manchester Business School carried out a survey to examine the opinions and predictions of experts in grocery retailing. These experts included retailers, food‐based manufacturers, and various industry analysts. This article forms Part 1 of a feature on the results of the survey; Part 2 will be published in the near future.

The aim of this study is to profile interdisciplinary accounting research and the facilitating role played by researchers by probing the characteristics of published articles in three leading interdisciplinary accounting research journals, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS); and Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA).

Profiling analysis is undertaken with a broad scan of publication descriptors in AAAJ, AOS and CPA between 2005 and 2016. Profiling stems from identifying and quantifying the characteristics of interdisciplinary research, and with further analysis, infer generalisations about its content and the community of interdisciplinary researchers.

The published output of 1,462 articles is produced by 1,688 authors affiliated with 660 institutions in 52 countries. The two most high-ranking topics are social and environmental accounting and management accounting. The highest-ranked authors are Stephen Walker, Rob Bryer, Lee Parker and Yves Gendron. The most productive universities are the University of London, Cardiff University and the University of Manchester. The countries highly involved in interdisciplinary accounting research are the UK, USA, Australia and Canada.

The data is restricted by the sample of manuscripts based on three interdisciplinary accounting research journals for the period 2005–2016 and does not consider manuscripts published in other accounting and non-accounting journals. Additionally, the process of analysing publication descriptors to generate categorised lists was a complex process that may not be replicated precisely by other researchers.

The results reported in this study can assist researchers interested in interdisciplinary research on what they may expect to read and understand.

The present study profiles interdisciplinary research in accounting to gain a picture of the elements that comprise interdisciplinarity, which, at present, is without empirical investigation.

This paper aims to investigate the social structure of strategic management research in the hospitality management field to determine whether a strong social structure is needed and, if so, how this structure can be enriched within the hospitality field.

A total of 1,652 articles related to hospitality strategic management published in leading hospitality and tourism as well as business journals were analyzed using co-authorship analysis combined with social network analysis.

The study’s findings demonstrate a progressive growth in collaboration. Leading authors, institutions and countries in the collaboration networks are identified. Network analysis shows that the ties in the network are too weak to build a strong social identity, although the community is broad.

This study provides solutions for building a strong social identity related to strategic management in the hospitality field. Moreover, this study helps leaders and managers, who need to know whom to speak to within academia to get industry-based advice, as well as scholars, junior researchers and graduate students, who must recognize the individuals producing knowledge in the academic field, to identify the key actors within the field.

As one of the first studies in this field, this research discusses why a strong social identity is necessary and how it can be built further while also looking at the potential for expansion in future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and compare the effectiveness and sensitivity of different cleanliness verification tests for post soldered printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) to provide an understanding of current industry practice for ionic contamination detection limits.

PCBAs were subjected to different flux residue cleaning dwell times and cleanliness levels were verified with resistivity of solvent extract, critical cleanliness control (C3) test, and ion chromatography analyses to provide results capable of differentiating different sensitivity levels for each test.

This study provides an understanding of current industry practice for ionic contamination detection using verification tests with different detection sensitivity levels. Some of the available cleanliness monitoring systems, particularly at critical areas of circuitry that are prone to product failure and residue entrapment, may have been overlooked.

Only Sn/Pb, clean type flux residue was evaluated. Thus, the current study was not an all encompassing project that is representative of other chemistry‐based flux residues.

The paper provides a reference that can be used to determine the most suitable and effective verification test for the detection of ionic contamination on PCBAs.

Flux residue‐related problems have long existed in the industry. The findings presented in this paper give a basic understanding to PCBA manufacturers when they are trying to choose the most suitable and effective verification test for the detection of ionic contamination on their products. Hence, the negative impact of flux residue on the respective product's long‐term reliability and performance can be minimized and monitored effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the articles presented in the Special Issue on the topic of “Marketing and flexibility”, and to discuss key issues associated with major debates relating to flexibility in order to position the articles within a wider context and highlight some key issues for further research.

Themes in prior research relating to “Marketing and flexibility” are documented and the growth of research interest into strategic flexibility is tabulated. The contributions of each article are briefly discussed.

There has been a steady growth of research interest into flexibility. To provide an example of this growth, the increase in the number of articles published on the topic of strategic flexibility in scholarly journals is highlighted over a 20‐year period. Key issues in prior research such as alternative definitions and the different postulated relationships between market orientation and strategic flexibility are revealed, as are issues for future research.

Key issues relating to research into flexibility for marketing scholars are revealed.

Sets out the US laws that give women protection from discrimination when pregnant. Defines the scope of pregnancy disability and outlines the responsibilities that employers have under the law. Focuses on pregnancy regulations in California, describing the provisions made for pregnancy leave, the medical certification needed, the right to reinstatement, the employer’s right to transfer a pregnant employee, and the pregnant employee’s right to transfer. Sets down the policy developed by UCLA concerning pregnancy discrimination. Briefly outlines the evidence a woman would need to show to win a case of discrimination because of pregnancy.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the potential of cyber-testing techniques in assessing the effectiveness of cyber-security controls and obtaining audit evidence.

The paper starts with an identification of the applicable cyber-testing techniques and evaluates their applicability to generally accepted assurance schemes and cyber-security guidelines.

Cyber-testing techniques are providing insight in the effectiveness of the actual implementation of cyber-security controls, which may significantly deviate from the conceptual designs of these controls. Furthermore, cyber-testing techniques could provide concise input for cyber-risk management and improvement recommendations.

The presented cyber-testing techniques could complement traditional process-oriented assurance techniques with specialized technical analyses of real-world implementations that focus on the adversaries’ viewpoint.